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The Guardian
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Yolngu power: how a small Indigenous community in the Top End came to dominate Australian art
It starts with panoramic views of a small town in high-noon heat: a widescreen wrap-around video, cycling slowly from streetscapes to the town's perimeter, with glimpses of the Arafura sea and red dirt vistas. 'Slow down … walk with us,' wall text invites us. Nearby hangs a series of rusty and battered road signs etched with coruscating designs. 'Road closed due to ceremony' reads one; 'You are on the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust' reads another. This is Yirrkala: a small community in the north-eastern tip of the Top End and a huge presence in contemporary Australian art. Yolŋu artists working with Yirrkala's arts centre have been constant fixtures at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art awards (Natsiaa) for the last three decades and have been the subject of surveys at the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), NGV, Australian National Maritime Museum and National Museum of Australia, as well as major international touring exhibitions. Now these artists are being celebrated at the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) in the exhibition Yolŋu power: the art of Yirrkala. What makes art from this part of Australia so powerful? Curator Cara Pinchbeck says it's partly the Yolŋu appetite for innovation, combined with the stable leadership of Yirrkala's arts centre, Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka, who is co-curator of the AGNSW exhibition. But mostly, Pinchbeck says, it's down to Yolŋu culture: the numerous song cycles detailing the creation stories of the various clans, and their connected designs – from which all art flows. Underpinning this is gurrutu: an all-encompassing system of connection that maps out each person's relationship to not only other people but every other thing. Even just breezing through Yolŋu Power, you get a sense of the vast richness of this culture and cosmology, across almost 300 works in a kaleidoscope of styles, mediums and subjects – from ochred bark paintings of creation stories and intricately decorated larrakitj (hollow poles) to digital projections, detailed depictions of plant life and minimalist abstractions evoking the Milky Way and the estuaries where fresh and saltwater meet. But if you take the time to really read the wall text and look at the detail of the artwork, an even richer story unfolds. It's the story of a people for whom art is inextricably enmeshed with their understanding of the universe and themselves; a community who, since the 1930s, have used art as a tool of cultural diplomacy with outsiders; and a constellation of individuals who have found ways to maintain millennia-old cultural practices, while boldly innovating for changing times. Past the panoramic video and etched road signs at the exhibition entrance, you pass through a darkened curvilinear chamber hung with a series of Rumbal (body) paintings in ochre on bark, depicting ceremonial designs from the 16 clans around Yirrkala. These designs – or miny'tji – are more than decorative: they express identity, ancestral connections, spiritual beliefs and Country itself. They are sacred and ancient. But these works were painted within the last few years, a statement that the cultural foundations and connections remain strong and vital. These miny'tji are the root of what audiences will see in the next rooms. Sometimes the patterns are in plain sight: the shimmering strings of diamonds in works by artists from Maḏarrpa and Gumatj clans, or the striations of straight and curved lines in works by Marrakulu and Rirratjiŋu artists. Sometimes they're merely hinted at – and even when they're not visible in the artwork, they're essential; the indelible cultural DNA of each maker. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Beyond the Rumbal chamber, the exhibition proceeds more or less chronologically, starting with the frontrunners who first painted these body designs on bark, adopting art as a form of cultural diplomacy with balanda/ŋäpaki (non-Yolŋu people). The exhibition closes with an explosion of dazzling innovation, including bark paintings using magenta printer-toner (by Noŋgirrŋa Marawili) and electric blue acrylic (Dhambit Munuŋgurr), and intricately etched sculptures made from mining detritus such as rubber conveyor belts and aluminium signs (by artists including Gunybi Ganambarr). Highlights include detailed and meticulous bark paintings by pioneering artist and activist Narritjin Maymuru, who contributed to the Näku Dhäruk (Yirrkala bark petitions) of 1963, which asserted Yolŋu sovereignty over land leased by the government to mining companies; and shimmering bark paintings by Djambawa Marrawili, including one from the Saltwater series that was successfully used by clans of the Blue Mud Bay area to assert sea rights in the federal court. As the exhibition proceeds, works by women proliferate, the visible shift of senior men permitting their daughters to paint their clans' miny'tji. Other women opted for everyday subjects. An entire room is given over to exquisite secular works on bark, canvas and larrakitj by female artists, including major figures such as Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu and Gulumbu Yunupiŋu. Plant life is strongly represented, with Malaluba Gumana's mesmerising paintings of dhatam (water lilies) and Djirrirra Wunuŋmurra's delicate depiction of wild yams. Mulkun Wirrpanda's illustrations of flowering vines are animated and projected over a termite-mound sculpture, in a luminous installation at the exhibition's centre. Yolŋu Power is best appreciated with a calm mind and careful attention. For best effect, start in the gallery's cavernous, subterranean Tank, where Buku's digital unit, The Mulka Project, has created an immersive installation evoking Yirrkala's changing seasons. Over 19 minutes, via a soundtrack featuring ancestral songs and field recordings from Country, and a shifting lighting palette, Yalu (Yolŋu for nest, signifying sanctuary) takes viewers through a seasonal cycle in the landscape from which Yirrkala's art flows. Slow down, breathe deeply – and then head upstairs to take a walk with this extraordinary community of artists. Yolŋu power: the art of Yirrkala is at Art Gallery of NSW's Naala Badu building until 6 October.
SBS Australia
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
Yolnu power: major exhibition showcases works of Yirrkala Aboriginal artists
Yolnu power: major exhibition showcases works of Yirrkala Aboriginal artists Published 20 June 2025, 8:38 am A major exhibition is showcasing the work of one of Australia's most internationally renowned art communities. Yolnu power: the art of Yirrkala, features 95 Aboriginal artists connected to Yirrkala in the Northern Territory's Arnhem Land. The exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales aims to showcase the continuation and diversity of the community's artistic practice from the 1940s to today.
